Four Common Lies about Higher Education
Cathy N. Davidson
If it’s January, you can be sure that high school students and their parents are sweating over their final college application deadlines — and pundits are busy penning articles and books proclaiming that “college isn’t worth it”.
Typically, the articles point to high-prestige employers (Google, Amazon, Apple) that no longer require a college degree for their jobs or fabulously successful Americans (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs) who dropped out of college. It all sounds good. Then you look at the jobs and realize they tend to be low-prestige, low-wage positions for which a college degree was probably never required in the first place. And you look at the demographic data and realize that billionaires (whether they have a degree or not) send their own children to college.
What’s up? Here are the four most common lies you are hearing and some common-sense facts to keep you and your teenager on an even keel while considering and applying for college.